The Famous Five

"You can't possibly do anything if you think you can't. But you can do impossible things sometimes if you think you can." 

Enid Blyton

Future Kenilworth chess historians will look back at this week as one in which we achieved things that might once have seemed impossible. As Mark wrote in his blog yesterday, our Open team had a terrific win against Banbury in the Cup on Monday, led by Jude's Board 1 win against James Jackson. I still remember when Jude started. The idea way back then that he (or any other new starter) would one day be beating an International Master with Black would have seemed "impossible," but he did it - and of course this was far from his first IM scalp! A terrific achievement of which he, Paul, and everyone at the club is very proud.

On Tuesday night, Kenilworth C ratcheted up 2.5 points across four boards to beat Olton A in our Division 1 match. For many years, Olton were the League's juggernaut team winning title after title. If someone had told you not all that long ago that our C team would beat them in a Division 1 match, that too would have been seen as "impossible." But it's now in the books...

Olton are not quite as strong as they once were, but they are still formidable, and we were out graded on every board. It would take a statistician of Joshua's calibre to calculate the likelihood of four players coming out on top against 4 players who are higher graded than them (with significant differentials on three of the four boards.) Not "impossible," but far from easy. Which is what makes this achievement all the more special.

Added to the challenges, we had a lot of players unavailable and organising the team had been very difficult. Ultimately Mark's inspired suggestion that Michal might be available made all the difference...

Dan was back in the team against Richard Liszewski on Board 4, but couldn't quite replicate his heroics against Banbury. I personally always find Richard annoying to play against. Partly because he always yells "check" at the top of his voice, but mainly because we usually have a wild game that he wins. Dan's game had a familiar look to my watching eyes. Sharp, with chances for both sides and ultimately unsuccessful. Richard is undoubtedly a canny operator and late in the night his rook, queen and bishop combined to break through Dan's tough defences and put Olton ahead.

My game with Mike Hollier on Board 3 was the quietest of the evening. A lot of wood came off very quickly, but my early draw offer was declined. We played on for nearly the full three hours in a complicated rook and minor piece ending. Mike was slightly better for most of this, but over pressed and gave me the open "a" file for my rook, after which I had secured full equality and we split the point.

At the exact same moment, on Board 2, Paul Badger secured a fantastic win against Mark Cundy. An extremely tense game. Mark had been attacking with queen and knight on Paul's kingside, while Paul was pressing on the queenside (Mark having castled long.) Paul's bishop and queen were combining well with his rook on c8 to tighten his grip around the white king... I always thought Paul was better but it was one of those games that looked like it had the potential to go either way. Ultimately Paul held his nerve superbly to bring us level at 1.5 - 1.5.

We all gathered around Board 1 to watch the final moments of Michal's shoot-out with Alan Lloyd. This being the game where Olton had the biggest grading differential of them all... To my joy I saw that Michal was the exchange up, but there was a lot of play left. Eventually Michal gave back the exchange to put himself two pawns up. With opposite coloured bishops on the board, I felt (as did Michal) that Alan might still have played on. That said, it seemed as if Michal's excellent play all evening had taken the last drops of Alan's energy and Alan resigned to give us an "impossible" victory. A brilliant effort from Michal!

This will surely be remembered as the week in which Kenilworth teams' secured five famous points (2.5 in the Open Ko and 2.5 here) and two amazing wins!

I always said to the C team at the start of the season that our aim was to stay up this year. We might have had a difficult start, with not many of the breaks going our way before this week, but we've shown we've got the strength and depth to make the "impossible" happen. Warwick University (which will be tough) and Leamington await in the coming weeks. We're going to give this a really good go. If results do go our way, maybe we should even consider getting a dog...

Postscript - three votes of thanks...

 I did want to thank Paul Badger for suggesting The Famous Five theme for this piece and Mark again for thinking of Michal for this game. I also wanted to thank all the Kenilworth players who played in my online 50th birthday bash. It was a big deal for me and I really appreciate those who made the effort.

The Famous Two and a Half

In the Enid Blyton book series, the Famous Five were Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog. On Monday night, KCC got half way to replicating this well known group - despite having no women or canines in the team - when the Magnificent 2.5 (bad choice of phrase - now we seem to be missing 4.5 people!) somehow secured us victory over a very strong Banbury side in the first round of the Open KO Cup.

It's not easy writing a match report when you left the venue after only one hour of play, but as I'd just flown back from Croatia that morning after 9 successive days of chess, I was in no fit state to stay any longer. Thank goodness I did, as apparently it got rather tense at the end of the evening, and it might well have proved too much for me in my weakened condition!

I was very pessimistic when I went home, as I was already sure that Keatan was losing to Georgs Vikanis on Board 2, and Jude was faced with the most difficult task in Leamington League chess - Black against IM James Jackson on top board. With a tied match being decided by board elimination, starting on Board 5, we could already have been looking at having to win all the remaining 3 boards to avoid defeat. The good news was that Andrew (v Gary Jackson), Dave (v Tom Day) and Joshua (v Paul Rowan) all seemed to me to have some advantage. But none was remotely decisive and we clearly couldn't afford even a single accident, so it looked for all the world as though our run of five successive cup triumphs was going to end at the first hurdle.

But I was reckoning without the Kenilworth Famous Two and a Half!

As I discovered when I went online the following morning to read the inevitable news of our defeat. Except we hadn't lost. We had actually won - and on tie break, which had seemed an impossibility to me the night before. My reading of events was shown to be absolutely dreadful, since only one game - a win for Andrew on Board 3 - had turned out the way I expected. Far from winning on the bottom two boards, both Dave and Joshua had managed to lose and somehow Keatan, despite not being in the best of health, had bravely turned round his dreadful looking position to secure a draw.

However, the mathematically advanced amongst you will have worked out that this left us trailing 2.5-1.5, with only the top board game remaining. But there the result quite clear showed a win for Jude - yes, our new FM had beaten Banbury's long standing IM, in what was possibly the highest level game ever played in the Leamington League. And so by levelling the scores, Jude had secured victory for us on tie-break. Probably the most dramatic conclusion to a KCC match since Paul beat Phil Holt on Board 1 in the 2017 Cup Final (after Phil had turned down Paul's draw offer that would have won the Cup for Olton!) to secure a 2.5-2.5 draw and a Kenilworth win on tie break!

So there you have it - some new legends are born! The Kenilworth Famous Two and a Half, who won the day against all the odds. An amazing effort by our top three boards, who have all now officially been inducted to the KCC Pantheon of Heroes, spearheaded by Jude's brilliant win. It would be quite a blow if we didn't make it 6 Cup triumphs in a row after such an epic performance. We owe it to our Heroes!

No more heroes? Oh yes there are!

Dhairya and Dan Excel vs Banbury A

 We always knew Banbury "A" Away was going to be one of the C team's toughest fixtures this season. Even if we'd been at full strength they would have been heavy favourites. Missing Dave, Paul and Rhys, it seemed like an even tougher gig. This initial appraisal seemed to be confirmed when we arrived to find IM James Jackson in the house, and an exceptionally strong Banbury line up awaiting us. I guess we have to take that as a sign of their respect for Kenilworth...

In the event we went down 3-1 but with two exceptional performances. First up, Dan shrugged off a near 400 point rating differential against Tom Day to put us 1-0 up. It was an excellent game, in which Dan, making his Division 1 debut, unleashed a supurb tactic to trap Tom's queen. A real testament to Dan's continuing progress. What a great effort! Dan is becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Myself and Dylan (also making his Division 1 debut) both struggled against stronger players with the black pieces. I don't recall playing Georgs Vikanis before, but while I made a game of it, the truth is it was never particularly close. Meanwhile Gary Jackson built up a brutal looking attack against Dylan and we were both finished around the two hour mark.

All of which left Dhairya against James Jackson. I can't remember seeing an effort as good as Dhairya's. Perhaps aided by the fact that he had no idea who James was until afterwards, Dhairya played brilliantly!! While he was never winning, he took James into a level rook and pawn and then a level pawn endgame, which James said afterwards was "extremely difficult." Ultimately James found a way to exploit his slightly better pawn structure, but Dhairya had pushed him to the very limit. A terrific game! Sometimes the result does not tell the whole story, so hopefully this write-up rebalances that, by giving Dhairya all the accolades he deserves for his incredible performance. 

As one of the Banbury players said to me afterwards "where do you keep finding these amazing juniors?" I just smiled - we are very lucky to have Dhairya and Dylan to say nothing of all the other juniors in our ranks, whatever team they are in.

There are no easy Division 1 games, but I'm hopeful that if we keep playing like this, we will win some matches. Even though we lost last night, I left feeling particularly proud of what Dhairya and Dan had achieved.

Billy is a Warwickshire Champion - and Nearly Doubles Up!

Though this report is a bit belated, I couldn't let last weekend's Warwickshire Rapid and Blitz Championships pass without recording the fact that KCC has another Warwickshire Champion! Billy put up a dazzling performance to take first place in Sunday's Blitz event, conceding just a single draw to Finlay Bowcott-Terry, and ending up with 13.5/14 after 7 double rounds. This put him 1.5 points clear of the field, which was dominated by young Warwickshire players.  Billy, who recorded a massive TPR of 2416, follows Javier, who won in 2023, as a recent KCC holder of this title.

And it was so nearly a double triumph for our young Candidate Master, as he was just edged out of first place in Saturday's Rapid event, where his unbeaten 6/7 saw him finish second to Finlay Bowcott-Terry. After a draw between the two of them, the title was decided when Billy dropped half a point to the experienced South Birmingham player Cory Hazlehurst in Round 6. Which meant he "only" posted a rapid TPR of 2350. These are numbers most of us can only dream about!

A truly astonishing weekend then for Billy, going undefeated over 21 games, and conceding just 3 draws! I'm afraid chess really is a young person's game. Which isn't particularly good news for me on the eve of playing in the European Seniors Championships!!

This performance definitely deserves a song. If only we could all have chess days like Billy.

B - Dazzling

After being on the receiving end of a rather brutal score line at the hands of Kenilworth A, the B team's second match of the season saw a complete reversal of fortune as Solihull A were despatched by a very impressive 3.5-0.5. But yet again, and as I seem to write in every match report, the bare score hides the drama of the evening, as every board could well have ended differently. Such is chess at our level! So let's just celebrate a very impressive victory, without getting too hung-up about how we got there!!

David was making one of his rare appearances for the club, but showed that despite (a) now being in full time employment and (b) seemingly hardly ever playing a game of chess, he is still a rather formidable opponent by taking down Don Mason, with Black, on Board 1. David seemed to be taken by surprise in the opening, but when Don failed to play a very strong line early on, David played near perfect chess. He occupied the centre and forced Don into a dangerous, but unsound, piece sac, after which he took over for a very surprisingly quick win, against a formidable opponent who had gone through last season unbeaten in the Leamington League.

Joshua dodged an even bigger bullet on Board 3 against Julian Summerfield as he lost a pawn to a White rook on the seventh rank for - seemingly - no compensation whatsoever. But, as we've seen on countless occasions before, material deficits and dodgy positions don't worry Joshua and somehow he contrived to win back his pawn and then bamboozle Julian into losing a pawn which gave Josh a mighty passed a pawn which duly marched up the board to victory.

So 2-0 to us on our 2 Black boards, and the match victory was confirmed when Mike drew against Tony Sadler on Board 4. Mike won a pawn, but Tony generated a very dangerous kingside attack and its quite likely that all three results were still possible when a draw was agreed deep into mutual time trouble.

Meanwhile, I had won a pawn against Ray Carpenter and when I added a second as we went into a rook and bishops endgame I thought it was all over, especially as I had a massive pawn wedge on d5, e6 and f5 . However, Ray got his king to f6, and even though I was two pawns up and bishops came off, it was far from straightforward. As I proved by going wrong, panicking and giving my rook up for Ray's last pawn to give me passed a and b pawns supported by my king against his rook. But the pawns weren't far enough forward, and Ray's king was too close to the pawns for comfort. In desperate time trouble both players traded mistakes on a regular basis, but Ray made the biggest one of all, when he missed a move that would have won both my pawns and the game. Somehow I bluffed my way into queening one of the pawns, and in the resultant q v r ending Ray couldn't get a good co-ordination of his last two pieces, eventually losing on time as I was poised to deliver mate or win his rook. Not a game to be proud of, but all I can say is a win's a win!

Time for some music. And who doesn't love a bit of Blue Sky?

Natural Order Restored

After last season's shocking events when the B team took 3 match points off the A team, the world seems to have been put back on its normal axis and natural order to have been restored. The A team prevailed in the first of this season's 2 encounters last night by 3.5-0.5 - but only after a tough fight. It seemed likely to be a closer result for much of the evening, but as the positions got critical it was the A team players who packed the bigger punch.

Kenilworth B (on right, front to back - Ben, Rhys, Mike and Josh) v Kenilworth A (on left, front to back - Andy, Andrew, Keatan and Jude)

Andrew was the first to bring in the full point, beating Rhys after a chaotic game in which I had great difficulty counting up the pieces for each side. At one point I thought Andrew was two pawns down for nothing. Then I saw he had two rooks to Rhys's one and assumed he had an exchange by way of compensation. Then afterwards I discovered that Andrew had actually been a whole rook up! Good job I wasn't playing. The game finished in a flurry of tactics which ended up with Rhys's queen falling off.

History was made in the second game to finish when the first FM ever to play a match for Kenilworth notched up the full point for the A team. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think KCC's first ever FM, Adam Collinson, got the title after leaving the area.) Yes, Jude won the battle of the J-men against Joshua after a very smooth and convincing game, where he ended up annexing a large number of Josh's pawns. Playing Black against Jude is not an easy task these days!

I was then on hand to witness the exciting climax of the Bd 4 encounter between Ben and the seldom-sighted Andy B. Andy had seemed to be better out of the opening, and Ben's position looked a bit passive, but he had somehow whipped up a very dangerous looking attack against Andy's king on a8, with rooks on a3 and b1 (both semi-open files), a queen on b3 and a bishop on f2. Despite being short of time (of course) he then uncorked the very aesthetically pleasing move Qb6 (Black had pawns on a7 and b7) threatening mate by Rxa7+.  (He may also have been threatening Q x N on c6, when bxc6 could have been met by Rxa7 mate, but I can't remember if Black was defending laterally along his own second rank with a rook. Well, there was a lot going on!) A lesser man might have fallen off his chair (or started to run for the hills with his king (Kb8), but Andy had anticipated Ben's Frank Marshall-esque move and uncorked a splendid combo involving QxR on b1 and after kxb1 (Qxb1 Re1 would also have won back the queen) then checks on the first and second ranks with the two black rooks forcing the White king to b3, when Rb1 check won back the White queen on b6 and left Andy with a won Rook and minor piece ending. A very exciting conclusion.

Which just left the possibly even more exciting Board 2 game between Mike and Keatan in play. It looked to me like Mike was better/winning, but the position  was ridiculously tactical, with unprotected pieces flying around the board in all directions. Keatan's king seemed to be in the bigger danger, but Mike's was not entirely safe either. The complexity was making my brain hurt so I left the room, and the players did the same shortly after when neither of them could stand the tension any longer and a draw had been agreed. Though Mike tells me that he had a winning position at the end, but with no time to find the only winning move in a still ridiculously complex position. Full-on, no holds barred chess!

So a mirror image of the score-line from the corresponding fixture last September, and one that sits rather more easily with the natural order of things. The B team still has to play the C team, but at least the A team can now concentrate on playing other clubs!

A purely random musical selection this week. Heard the song for the first time in years at the Abbey Club last night, I like it, so that will have to be reason enough!

Disaster

 I am writing this now, such that tomorrow can truly be another day. Essentially we lost to Stratford and it was all my fault. Dave Ireland had a good win against Richard McNally on one. Dhairya who had answered a late call to play, for which we are hugely grateful, had an excellent draw on three. Paul went down on two, but it was my game against Carl Hibbard which was key.

I picked up a pawn in the opening and built up a very strong attack. As ever, I am my own worst enemy, and I got into time trouble yet again. With a huge advantage on the board, but not much left on my clock, I somehow contrived to pick up the wrong piece. I wasn't sure if Carl had even seen or not, as he was just re-entering the room, but there was no question in my mind that I had to do the sporting thing and play the piece.  Unfortunately, to my horror, all options with it left me completely lost.

Absolutely excruciating, not only costing me the game, but also costing us the match. I would say it was probably the most painful defeat I have ever had, and that's saying something. I don't really have any positives to add. Except perhaps, we've shown again that we can be competitive. Maybe sometimes, we just have to put our personal disasters down to experience and move on.  

There will doubtless be other days, but I am glad this one is done.

C the Stars - but A the Winners

An historic match - Kenilworth C (left, near to far) Ben, Rhys, Paul and Dave v Kenilworth A (right, near to far) Josh, Bruce, Keatan and Billy

In what may - or may not - have been the first ever Kenilworth A v Kenilworth C encounter, the glory was all for the C team, though the spoils - and points - went to the A team. But its Sea The Stars/C the Stars that gets the video!

The games finished in reverse board order, so that Josh and Ben were the first across the finishing line, with Ben's extra pawn in a rook ending countered by Joshua's enormous clock advantage. Black might well have been winning, but he would have to have risked losing to go for the full point and so the game instead ended in a repetition. So slight advantage to the C team with one large rating disadvantage - and one of the A team's White boards comfortably neutralised.

I think I missed much of the excitement in the game between Rhys and Bruce on Board 3, due to socialising with the chess dads (Ed and Nash) in the bar, but apparently the players took it in turn to sac an exchange. Bruce seemed to be a pawn up (I don't really trust my ability to count these days, so I may have got this wrong) but his pawn structure was pretty grotty. Eventually Rhys won back his pawn - after looking for all the world like he was about to fall into a cheapo - and again the A team clock advantage was enough to secure a draw before any of Bruce's weak pawns came under attack.

So not very convincing by the A team so far, but surely the youngbloods on the top two boards would win the day. Eventually yes, but it was by no means straightforward. Keatan seemed to have a really good opening and started building a kingside attack, but Paul B was in no mood to roll over and defended stoutly. At one point Keatan seemed to have got over-optimistic with an exchange sac, but Paul declined to take it and instead started developing his own attack against Keatan's rather exposed king. Black won a pawn (and possibly a second) but in big time trouble Paul found his queen and bishop skewered and when the piece fell off there was no way to adequately defend the back rank. Phew - thank goodness Keatan played this just in time ..............

So at least the A team weren't going to lose, and the match result came down to top board. Dave and Billy had a great set to. Of course, I missed much of the action, but by the time I started watching Dave was up an exchange for a pawn - but Billy had a big mass of centre pawns which was blotting out Dave's bishop on b2. However, White's rook was very active and his queen was also in a very threatening position - but the centre pawns were rolling. It was very tense and there was little time left for either player. Somehow Billy got the exchange back, but Dave then sacked his bishop for Black's three centre pawns, so we ended up with queen h, g and f pawns for Dave and queen, knight and h pawn for Billy. Dave's h3 pawn fell off, but the White queen started checking. And checking. And checking. There may well have been a repetition, but no-one was keeping score. It looked like Billy was making no progress, but he now used the time he had accumulated to find a fantastic plan which ended up with his knight jumping into f3 (check) and supporting it with a king on g4. The engine says it was still drawn but under severe clock pressure Dave couldn't find the only move to save the game, and Billy jumped in on the back rank - crucially with check - to deliver mate. An epic encounter and one that reflected great credit on both players for enormous fighting spirit and imaginative play.

So 3-1 to the A team, but by no means a completely convincing performance. 

Our song celebrates the adventures of Billy's knight, venturing far into enemy territory and - though pinned, seemingly for all eternity - providing the vital support for the Black queen to deliver mate on g1. It was indeed "a long way from home", but crucially it lived to tell the tale! (And yes, I know this song has featured here once before, but I can't think of anything else. It's not easy coming up with something new every post!)

Javi Es Campeon de KCC, 2025

I knew it; I just knew it. Despite going into the third and final leg of the inaugural KCC Speed Chess Championship with a commanding lead, the tournament format (best 2 scores to count) meant that unless I got at least 6.5/7, Javi would overtake me if he reached this score. I thought that meant I would have to at least draw with him in our individual encounter to stand any chance, and I wasn't particularly hopeful. But I needn't have worried, as I played so dreadfully in Leg 3 that I never even got to play him! My hopes instead were - short of a major surprise result, all riding on Billy, a late entry and making his only appearance in the Championships, to take down the Man from La Mancha and secure the life changing first prize of £25 (twice what I won at the British Seniors Championship!) for me. Unfortunately for me, the Billy-Javi game ended in a draw, and with both winning every other game they tied for first place on the night.

There were some excellent performances on the night, with especially notable results for Algis and Patrick (who both wiped the floor with me!)  However, this wasn't enough to take them past Ben in the race for the U-1750 rating prize (another £25), even though he was unable to improve on his score from the first two legs. Though he did manage to draw with me again, to take his score to 2/3 as we played in every leg - all I needed was a half point more from either of the first two games and I'd have been the champ, so as well as winning his section, he also turned out to be the Kingmaker!

So the final Club Speed Championship Leaderboard/Points were:-

1 Javi 12.5
2 Mark 12.3 
3 Keatan 10.1
4 Mike 8.9
5 Ben 8.7 (and the U1750 Rating Prize)
6 Dave 8.2
7 Algis 8.0 (2nd U1750)
8 Dylan 7.0 (3rd U1750)

So many congratulations to Javi and Ben for their successes, and commiserations to those who were just pipped at the post - ie me!!

Do you think that was Spanish enough to commemorate Javi's victory??

In total, we had 18 participants who played in at least 1 of the three events - well over half the club's total membership - so this must be judged a major success and a triumph for Ben, who both created and organised the event - and then went and won his section as well! (Not forgetting the massive contribution of Gregory in his Chief Arbiter and Swiss-Manager supremo roles.) In fact it was such a success, we may well do something similar at Christmas, though that may have to be a one-off due to time constraints. Maybe we could get all our titled players to turn out for that?!

Clearly the most appropriate video to accompany this report would have been Yvonne Fair singing "It Should Have Been Me", but I've used that before (when I was also pipped at the post in something else!), so I won't bother trying to be relevant. Instead, I'll just delve into YouTube and pull out a random musical tour de force. Wonder what it will be?

What a suprise - Jackson Browne! Who could ever have guessed? And bonus appearances by Bonnie Raitt on vocals, Bruce Hornsby on piano and - of course - the wonderful David Lindley on steel guitar. Just magical. Wish I'd been there.

British Championships 2025

Well, my plan to file some regular reports from the front line in Liverpool clearly didn't work too well. what with sight-seeing, playing and then eating and drinking there simply wasn't enough time left for me to slave over a hot lap-top and keep you stay-at-homes up to date with how our brave lads were getting on. But - better late than never - I can at least provide a round up of how the KCC battalion ultimately fared.

Star billing has to go to our two junior sensations, Jude and Billy, who both performed admirably in the Championship event, both eventually finishing on 4.5/9 after a last round draw between themselves. Not the pairing either would have wanted to finish on, but at least no-one went home a loser! Jude's high point was obviously the win over IM Brandon Clarke which took him above 2300 and qualified him for the FM title, while Billy had an excellent event too, and gained 62 rating points. And it could have been even more as he had both IM Andrew Ledger and GM Nigel Davies on the edge of defeat. Crucially, he was unbeaten in the last three rounds when borrowing a pen from me! Between them, Jude and Billy only played 3 non-titled players across 18 games, which illustrates what a strong event this was. Excellent results and performances at such a young age.

Bruce was in the running for a high placing in the 50+ event, but a last round loss - when a win would have placed him clear third - sent him down the table to 9th=, but with a hefty rating gain. Ben made his debut in Seniors' chess in this event and finished 26th= from a starting rank of 41 and also gained rating points, as he did with his excellent 4th= finish in the U1900 morning tournament. (Which netted him £20, to boot!) Ed and I flew the flag for KCC in the 65+ event where, from 81 starters I finished 4th= (winning £12.50 - its big money at the British Champs!) and Ed was 44th= - in both cases well above our starting ranks. Finally, as far as proper chess is concerned, Keatan found it hard going in the Major Open but still scored above 50% in his unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 2026 British Championships. Which, if you haven't already heard, will be held at Warwick University - so no excuses for not playing next year! I guess I should also mention the Blitz and Rapid events, but only because Joshua managed to finish 3rd= in the U-2000 rapidplay event and take home £18.50, which must have more than paid for his day return from Manchester!

And I can't let the event pass by without mentioning that the recent slayer of KCC at our 50th anniversary simultaneous display, GM Mickey Adams, collected a 9th British Championship title to go with his recent English Championship success. What a player - not bad for a 53 year old! And he fully deserved to see his image up in lights on an enormous billboard opposite the playing hall. Don't think I've seen chess get such large scale promotion before.

Disappointing that none of KCC's finest managed to make it onto the advert along with Gawain, Mickey and Nikita!

Liverpool proved to be a very interesting host city - plenty to see and do and no shortage of accommodation, food and beverage options. Especially the last named! And what a venue we played in - Warwick University will do well to find anywhere on campus as impressive as this!

The grade 1 listed St George's Hall

Which was equally impressive inside!

Slightly larger than the Abbey Club!

Although it has to be said that the tradesmen's entrance the chess players had to use was slightly less imposing.

The way in looked like the entry to some public toilets. And not very nice ones at that!

Liverpool, famously, has two cathedrals which stare at each other from either end of the marvellously appropriate Hope Street.

The truly monumental Anglican Cathedral, seen from the steps of the Catholic Cathedral, half a mile away. It is the longest and fifth largest cathedral in the world. But definitely not the most beautiful.

The RC Cathedral, designed by Coventry kid Sir Frederick Gibberd - also
famous as the architect of Didcot Power Station and Harlow New Town!

When I wasn't busy preparing for my battles on the chessboard (ie most of the time) I took advantage of the free mornings to visit some landmark sites associated with several of Liverpool's most famous sons and daughters.

Who lived in a house like this? John Lennon!

So no prizes for guessing this was the childhood home of Paul McCartney

Surprise, surprise! It's Cilla again.

And another surprise - who knew that the 100 Another Place statues by Antony Gormley on Crosby beach were actually modelled on the most famous of all Liverpool icons - the Diddymen?!

To avoid any confusion, please note that I am on the left.

After this bumper pictorial city tour (aren't you relieved there was no photography allowed in the Beatles's former homes?!) you'd think I'd have no energy left for a musical contribution as well. But you'd be wrong. How could I miss the opportunity to present one of Liverpool's most celebrated musical acts singing about an ancestor of a KCC legend? Answer - I couldn't!

Jude is an FM!

Fantastic news from the British Championships at Liverpool, where yesterday Jude had a tremendous win over the very strong IM Brandon Clarke (for the second time in a month, both with Black), finishing with a brilliant rook sac. You can play through the game here. After this win, Jude's live ELO rating has gone over 2300, which means he has qualified to become a Fide Master. This makes him only the second KCC player ever to become an FM, after Adam Collinson, though I'm pretty sure Adam didn't reach this milestone at the age of just 15!! Many congratulations from everyone at the club, Jude. Your success is absolutely brilliant.

It was very nearly an even more special day, as Billy was on the verge of taking down another IM, Andrew Ledger, but somehow the more experienced player saved a desperate looking rook ending and prevented an IM-bashing double by KCC juniors. So after 4 rounds of the Championships, Jude has a fantastic 3 pts with Billy on a more than respectable 2 pts. Today its another very tough pairing for Jude, against Ukrainian IM Svyatoslav Bazakutsa, while Billy plays FM Stephen Dishman. Good luck to them both, and indeed to all KCC participants. Which includes myself, of course!

More news as and when I can find the time/energy!

The Storm Before the Even Bigger Storm

It was the second instalment of the inaugural Kenilworth Speed Chess Championships last night, and ten intrepid players assembled to contest a five round rapid chess Swiss with a time limit of 10'+5".

Fresh from my surprise joint first place in leg 1, I found myself as clear top seed this time around, mainly thanks to everyone else having either ridiculously low rapid ratings (yes Keatan, that means you!) or no rapid rating at all. In the absence of our Swiss Manager supremo, Gregory, tournament organiser Ben had to revert to the tried and trusted analogue method of pen, scraps of paper and trial and error to make the pairings, but despite the distractions of also playing in the event, he coped admirably with the pressure and kept the show on the road.

Round 1

Mark 1 – 0 Bernard 
Ben 0.5 – 0.5 Mike 
Dave 1 v 0 Rhys
Keatan 1 v 0 Algis
Patrick 0 v 1 Paul B

Round 2

Paul B 0 – 1 Mark
Mike 1 – 0 Patrick
Keatan 1 – 0 Dave
Bernard 1 – 0 Ben
Rhys 1 – 0 Algis

Round 3

Mark 1 v 0 Keatan
Dave 0 v 1 Mike
Paul B 0.5 – 0.5 Bernard
Ben 1 – 0 Rhys
Algis 1 – 0 Patrick

Round 4

Mike 0 v 1 Mark
Dave 1 – 0 Algis
Bernard 0 – 1 Keatan
Ben 1 – 0 Paul B
Patrick 0 – 1 Rhys

Round 5

Mark 0.5 – 0.5 Ben
Mike 1 – 0 Rhys
Patrick 0 – 1 Dave
Paul B 0 -1 Keatan
Algis 0 – 1 Bernard

At the end of the evening I had just about managed to justify my number 1 seeding, finishing on 4.5/5, ahead of Keatan the rating bandit on 4. The full standings were:-

1 Mark 4.5 
2 Keatan 4
3 Mike 3.5
4= Ben and Dave 3
6 Bernard 2.5
7 Rhys 2
8 Paul B 1.5
9 Algis 1
10 Patrick 0

The tournament was very hard fought, with the 5 rounds not concluding until around 10.30, and many games lasting close to 30 minutes. I almost lost count of the number of drawn out queen endings I had to play!

For the second successive event, I got to the final round with a 100% score (after a very lucky Rd 4 win over Mike) but - just like last time - I found Ben a very difficult opponent. At least this time I didn't lose, which was just as well, as Keatan won his last round encounter against Paul and would have tied if Ben had done the double over me. I don't know what it is about Ben's play, but he's got me totally psyched out now!

The even bigger storm referenced in the title of this article could be either Leg 3 of the KCC Speed Championship (which will be another Blitz event on August 28th) or the imminent British Championships which are about to start in Liverpool. KCC's 2 junior CMs are both in action in the Championship proper (but with starting ranks of 43 (Jude) and 72 (Billy) you can tell this is a monstrously strong event. Keatan is flying the KCC flag in the Major Open, where he is seeded 17th (of 137!) aiming for one of the 10 qualifying places available for the 2026 British Championship. Ben makes his debut in the 50+ Championships (seeded 41) where he is joined by Bruce (start rank 24). Of course, Ben is also playing in a morning tournament as well, and a couple of Blitz evenings. Good luck to him I say, but count me out of such an intensive schedule - I've got sight-seeing, eating, drinking and sleeping to take care of! Keatan, Bruce and - surprise, surprise - Joshua will also be blitzing two of their evenings away. Madness, sheer madness!

Well, why not? It is Liverpool we're going to!

Ed (seeded 60) and myself (21) are the two KCC representatives in the 65+ event. The chances of me repeating my shock joint first in 2019 are consequently very low.

So we haven't quite been able to match the even larger turnout we had in Torquay back in 2019, but its still a respectable showing. Good luck to all and who knows, there may even be a report or two of proceedings posted here.

Now, we've had this song before (no idea if it was this same video), but it would be careless of me not to continue the theme. So here goes.

 

You Wait Ages for a 2700 GM and Then 3 of Them Come Along at Once

The English Championships are under way at the Holiday Inn and Kenilworth has been graced by the presence of not one, not two, but three GMs rated over 2700 ECF. This must be the strongest collection of chess players Kenilworth has ever seen!

Fresh from his slaughter of the innocents at the recent KCC 50th Anniversary Simultaneous Display, Mickey Adams has quickly returned to Kenilworth as the number 2 seed, with an ECF rating of 2726, and following a Round 4 win over number 3 seed Gawain Jones (rated a mere 2723!) has assumed sole leadership as I write with a 100% score. Trailing half a point behind is number one seed, and 2021 Russian Champion, Nikita Vitiugov (2746).  A potentially decisive round 5 encounter between the top two seeds is scheduled for Sunday morning.

Round 1 underway, with Nikita Vitiugov White on Board 1, Mickey Adams Black on Board 2, and Gawain Maroroa Jones on Board 3 nearest the camera (left)

Three of Kenilworth's finest are also in action, with Jude currently leading the way on an undefeated 3/4 after some excellent games. He faces IM Brandon Clarke in Round 5. Keatan and Billy are both on 1.5 pts at the moment, though Keatan will be the happier of the two given his very strong opposition so far. Billy has suffered two White losses which have derailed his progress, but lets hope for a strong finish in the last 3 rounds. We can in any case be massively proud that three of our juniors are mixing it in this ferociously strong tournament. Keep going guys!

Its Hot and Cold as Club Quickplay Championship Begins

It was 29 degrees centigrade in Kenilworth yesterday, as the first of three legs of the new Kenilworth Quickplay Championship got underway. Inside the Holiday Inn, though, it was decidedly parky, as the air conditioning was seemingly turned up to 11 and frostbite, rather than heatstroke, was the more likely affliction for the 12 players who contested a 7 round (slow) Blitz (5" + 2'). There should have been 14 players but Rhys (unwell) and Joshua (who knows!?) were late withdrawals.  But all twelve starters would surely agree with Little Feat that "it was freezing cold in that hotel!" Great version here, with Bonnie Raitt on guest vocals.

The tournament was only able to function smoothly thanks to Gregory, our 14 year old National Arbiter, who was able to set things up on Swiss Manager and handle the pairings, results and grading functions with an ease which made both Ben and I very embarrassed after our own pathetic attempts to master the software!

Javi started off as hot favourite, but something went very wrong in Round 2 when he contrived to lose on time against me, in a probably winning endgame - though as he pointed out to me afterwards, I had missed the one move win of a piece earlier! This put me, Mike and Dave in the early lead but somehow I then just kept on winning, getting myself to 6/6. Before the last round, Javi had recovered to lie in second place on 5 pts, with Dhairya and Ben back in a tie for third on 3.5.

The last round pairing had me as Black against Ben, and all I needed for victory was a draw, but as this is a three leg event, with the best 2 results on game points counting, I decided that it was more important to go for broke rather than try and wimp out with a draw. (Which Ben may not have accepted, of course!) You can all guess what happened next. Ben played a monster game and took several of my pawns before annexing a piece and then delivering mate. Brutal!

Of course, Javi then won his Round 7 encounter with Dhairya to catch me on 6 points. Ben's demolition job on me meant he finished in clear third place on 4.5. But this is just the first of three events, so there's plenty of twists that might happen yet - and the tournament winner might even not have played a single game yet! Who knows who might turn up for events 2 (Rapid) and 3 (another Blitz)? BTW you can play one of these events without being a member of the ECF, but you won't be allowed to play in a second without at least Bronze membership.

So the future dates for your diary are July 31st for leg 2 and August 28th for the potentially decisive leg 3. By the way, there will be a prize of £25 to the overall winner, and £25 to the best placed player under ...... a rating yet to be decided by Ben. Though on the evidence of yesterday's field, the rating cap will possibly be in the vicinity of 1700. Anyway, no need to panic yet as Ben will be in touch with everyone to take entries before each of the two remaining legs.  In the meantime I will enjoy my position as joint leader while it lasts - which will be until July 31st!

KCC Routed in 50th Anniversary Celebration Simul!

It was a great day for the club yesterday, when we hosted a simultaneous display from England's legendary Super GM and 8 time British Champion, Mickey Adams. Well, it was a great day in every respect except the score, as Mickey turned on the turbo chargers to leave us losers by a score of 28.5-0.5! Massive congratulations to Andy Ward for preventing the clean sweep and retaining just a bit of dignity for the club!  In the end there were 22 KCC participants, as Dhairya was unable to get to the venue in time from a football match, plus 7 of Paul's most promising students from the Coventry Chess Academy, who we were delighted to invite to join us. With none older than 11, and three of them only 5 (yes, 5!!) it was something of a baptism of fire to be playing a man once ranked 4th in the world - behind only present/future World Champions Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand! - but they all did themselves and the CCA proud with both their play and their behaviour.

And, as you can tell from the score, it was no better for the older and more experienced KCC contingent. We had managed to bring in 2 of our big guns, Jude and Javier, to fill the top boards and - surely - put us on the scoreboard, but regrettably these were 2 big guns who were only able to fire blanks and were readily put away by the GM. Andy B dropped a pawn early on Board 3 and despite determined play inevitably went down to defeat. I thought I was doing rather well (+1.8 at one point!!) but got well outplayed at the critical moment and ended up in a mating net where my extra piece was not much consolation. On Board 5 Keatan got into a big tactical melee which looked quite promising, but Mickey had seen a bit further and when the fireworks finished he was a pawn ahead and inevitably winning.

I failed to see much of anybody else's games, and while I have collected all/most of the score sheets, I haven't had a chance to play through them yet. (Watch this space - I'm sure that some of the games will feature on the Blog in due course.) At the very end it was only Mike and Algis left, but Mike was powerless to stop Mickey promoting to a second queen, while Algis - the last man sitting - had to concede as a central pawn push destroyed his position and won material.

So full marks and maximum kudos to Andy who, together with Ilyas from the CCA juniors, won a best game prize, selected by Mickey, and each received a signed copy of his ECF Book of the Year, Think Like a Super Grand Master. (Shame none of us read this before the simul!) Naturally, you will want to see how you go about drawing against a Super GM, so here's the game. The Lichess Stockfish tells me that Mickey played at 94% accuracy and Andy at 95%! Impressive or what?! 

Just like Julius Caesar, Mickey would be well entitled to say, "Veni! Vidi! Vici!". So many congratulations to our visiting GM, who was a very friendly and engaging guest - and a frighteningly strong chess player. If Jude, Billy or Keatan can't win the English Championship in Kenilworth in July, I hope its Mickey who can regain the crown he last won in 2023 and only relinquished to Gawain Jones in a play off last year. I should have asked him what piece of music he would like to accompany this article, but as I didn't he'll have to make do with my choice. Looking at the results list it seems to me that there was indeed, from a KCC perspective, "too much blood on the page" (and also "on the Page!"), so I'll let The Gaslight Anthem play us out, in what is only their second ever appearance here.

Trophies Galore

At last week's Leamington League AGM it was raining, not men, but silverware and trophies on KCC. As well as 4 team awards, there were also 3 individual prizes. And just to prove it, here is a picture of them all together for what is probably the only time.

3 humans: (l-r) Andy Ward, Ben Graff, Mark Page
7 trophies: Back (l-r) Division 2, Division 1  Front (l-r) Best Game (Andy W), U8750 Cup, Open KO Cup, Blitz Champion (Javier), Blitz Intermediate (Keatan)

By the way, you can replay Andy's splendid prize winning game (as judged by National Master Don Mason) here. 

Now I bet you all thought you'd guessed what the song would be from the very first line of this report - and that was, indeed, my intention. But my super-new video list has now told me that I've used it before. So hurriedly I've had to go to Plan B. Very tenuous, but its the best I could come up with at short notice. It's got the word silver in, so that will have to do! (The alternatives were David Soul or David Essex who just don't cut it as far as I'm concerned!) Probably a bit too country for some of you, but we're here to cater for all tastes. The rock 'n roll will surely be back next time!

A nice rendition by Poco, but even better, in my opinion, is the original by Gram Parsons. But why don't you decide?

Never Mind the Chess - What About the Music??

As far as I can tell, the first music video to appear on the KCC website appeared on December 20, 2017. It was Tina Turner singing "We don't need another hero". But don't bother going back to try and find it, as the video has subsequently been deleted from YouTube, so no longer appears on our Blog. Little did I realise, when I first discovered how to embed videos into a web post, that the selection of music would become such a big part of the KCC Blog. My semi-scientific research (scrolling back for what seemed like ever through 7.5 years of posts) has revealed that there have in total been some 101 different artists featured across a total of 160 music videos.

You won't be surprised to learn that Bruce tops the table of most appearances. The Top 10 currently looks like this.

Bruce Springsteen        14*
Jackson Browne             9
Bob Dylan                      8
Little Feat                       5
The Kinks                       4
The Allman Brothers      3
Buffalo Springfield         3
The Byrds                       3
Mark Knopfler                3**

The Grateful Dead          3

* Plus 1 with Southside Johnny

** Plus 2 with Dire Straits

There are a further 14 artistes with 2 contributions, and 77 with a single appearance.

The Club Organiser has clearly been progressively losing his marbles, as several songs have appeared more than once by accident - though on a couple of occasions it has been done deliberately, most recently with Fairground Attraction's Perfect, in honour of a second 100% score by Javier at the LDCL Blitz Championships. Going Home, the theme from Local Hero, appeared 3 times in the same post (deliberately!) and Running on Empty by Jackson Browne has also featured 3 times though two of these have now disappeared, having been removed from YouTube. Now I have a list of all the videos, such accidental repetition shouldn't happen again. As long as I keep the list up to date, of course!

In my opinion the weirdest song to appear (so far!) was Charles Jolly's rendition of The Laughing Policeman, though if you want to hear it again you'll have to track it down yourselves as the Blog search function doesn't reference embedded videos. But also pretty weird was John Cage's 4'33" of absolute silence. Still, I prefer this to any of the contributions by Abba or Queen. Not my favourite groups!

Despite being of a certain age myself, I'm pleased to see that the Beatles and Rolling Stones have only managed one appearance each, with their combined score being beaten by both the Kinks and The Byrds, the two best 60's pop bands in my opinion.

But the most astonishing discovery I made going through the Blog's musical history is that one song - which should really have been the first ever - has never made an appearance. Until today. I could have included the live version recently witnessed by the Chairman and Club Organiser in Manchester, but that's an amateur production with very dodgy sound and this song deserves better. Much better. So wrap your ears around this. If its not the greatest rock song ever written, it must be pretty damn close! What a great way to start the second 160 KCC music videos.

We are the Champions! Open KO Cup!

Apologies for being a bit slow off the mark with a Cup Final report compared to Ben. But I've got here in the end, even if I have stolen his headline in the process.

And my goodness, what a performance I have to report. A fifth successive Open KO Cup for Kenilworth was secured on Tuesday (albeit spread over 7 years due to Covid!), when we beat Stratford 4.5-0.5 at Olton. This still leaves us some way behind Rugby's record 7 wins in a row, but as long as the run continues, there's always a chance we might get there! We have now won the Open KO Cup 11 times in total.

Having beaten Stratford A in our recent league match, we were bound to start favourites, as although we were missing Javier from that team, Captain Fantastic Andrew had managed to secure the services of Jude and Billy to make up for his absence. Not a bad trade, you'd have to say! What they lack in years they more than make up for in ability and rating! And as if that wasn't daunting enough, Stratford had the misfortune to be missing their top board, Ben Larkin, and to arrive with only 4 players. Consequently, all I had to do to claim the first point of the night was stay alive until 20.30, and thankfully I managed that.

The first real game to finish was on Board 2, where Jude overwhelmed David Gardner in what looked like a very convincing win - though he did confide in me afterwards that there was one moment where David could have made things considerably more difficult. But once this tactic was missed, Jude started collecting a lot of material and won quickly. Soon afterwards Andrew won against Richard Dobedoe on Board 5 to clinch the match. A Black bishop appeared on h5 attacking a White rook on f3, and unfortunately for Richard there was another White rook on d1, so he was just dropping an exchange. Rather than prolong the suffering he decided to resign on the spot.

Jude won too quickly for me to capture him in action! Billy, meanwhile, looks absolutely thrilled to be playing on Board 1

At which point I took this as my cue to depart for home, leaving Billy and Keatan both in action. Keatan's position against Alexander Roberts was looking rather ropey to me, as he was a pawn down without much/any compensation that I could see. But what do I know - not much later Nash messaged me to say that Keatan had drawn. In contrast, Billy, after a quiet opening with Black, had started to make inroads into Richard McNally's position on top board, posting a very dangerous looking bishop on e4 attacking a White king that was completely lacking any close pawn cover - the g pawn having disappeared and the f and h pawns having marched up the board. I don't know how Billy engineered the win, but it was no surprise to learn that he had found a way and wrapped up a very convincing win, which gave us our fourth consecutive Div 1/Open Cup double.

Keatan (top) thinking hard; The Invisible Man winning on Board 4; and Andrew getting ready to pounce on an upcoming oversight.

Our recent trophy record is getting to ridiculous proportions - it is now 17 trophies in the last 4 seasons with, I think, 15 of them coming in the Leamington League. Kenilworth may be the smallest place to have any teams in the League, but we can certainly punch above our weight! Which is a rather convoluted connection to our song of the week!

Congratulations to every one who played in our latest successful Cup campaign - 4.5-0.5 v Shirley; 5-0 (by default) against Coventry; and 4.5-0.5 against Stratford. 

We are the Champions! U8750 Cup!

 

The Winning Team: - (l-r) Dylan, Dan, Ben, Paul, Dhairya

In the beginning, there were five... This was more or less how I started a recent Chess Magazine article, which focussed on Frank Marshall. In Marshall's (historically dubious) telling of the story, there were originally five Grandmasters.  Just as the names of Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall will live forever in the chess world, future Kenilworth historians will doubtless want to acknowledge the efforts of Badger, Pandya, Graff, Davies and Bayliss in more or less the same breath.

We not only defended the U8750 Cup last night against Shirley, but also managed to do so having played the same team in every round. 

We started out with a 1-4 win away to Solihull on a cold January night. This had been followed by a nail-biting semi-final against Stratford in March, which we edged 2-3. Yesterday we were on the road again. All finals are at a neutral venue, and we lined up against Shirley in Olton.

 

The match was played in a really good spirit, with lots of friendships existing between the teams. As someone who plays for Shirley in the Birmingham League, I have reflected on the fact that the two biggest games of the season for the C and U8750 teams both came against the club (other than Kenilworth of course) that I most have a soft spot for and relationship with - but needs must. I'll get the drinks in when I attend the Shirley AGM!

I would love to be able to give a blow by blow account of all the games, but I can't, as my own battle was the last to finish. So I will share what I can... Things started exactly as they had last year, with me losing the toss. Dylan finished first with an excellent draw against Arnold Peace. It looked to have been very solid throughout. Last year Dylan was in the U1600 cup final team and his promotion and delivery at a higher level is testament to his progress. An excellent end to a great season.

Paul then went down on Board 1 against Darren Whitmore. It sounds like both players had their chances, and Darren is always a tough opponent. So a good struggle, but it meant that we were losing the match. I would like to thank Paul for all his efforts this season as he has been our key player on so many occasions, but this wasn't his night.

Dhairya rounded off his superb season by beating Keith Ingram on Board 2 to bring us level. We are so blessed with fantastic juniors and just like Dylan, Dhairya has grown and grown as the season has progressed. He really is a special talent. 

Dan has also been a revelation this year, and he did a great job of bringing the full point home against Kim Gilbert on Board 5. I am glad from a blood pressure perspective that I didn't see the end of this one, as Dan told me afterwards that he had been below 20 seconds at one point. But he got the job done, and Dan has been a major find for the club this year.

All of which meant that we were winning 2.5 - 1.5, but I needed to draw with Gordon Christie or we would lose on board count. I can't in all honesty say it was my best ever game. I wasn't happy with how I played the opening (although Fritz thinks it's OK) and I was certainly losing at one point. I dug deep and managed to completely turn the tables, not only beating back Gordon's attack but also picking up a pawn in the process. I seemed to be in full control, but it was Gordon's turn to play well. Fritz has highlighted that I did miss a win, but we were both below 3 minutes at that point, and even now I can see why a human would have played what I did, so I can't beat myself up too much. Ultimately we ended up knight and 3 (me) vs knight and 2 (Gordon) but all the pawns were on the same side of the board. I still had in my mind that I should win (because of the earlier position rather than what I had now, which Fritz scores as dead level), but clearly there was nothing doing. Even when Gordon offered me the draw I hesitated, but I certainly wouldn't have been happy if someone else turned down a  draw that would have won us the cup, so I took it. We were the U8750 Champions!

It's been a great team effort. Dan and Dhairya both scored 3/3 on our cup run. I also clocked in with 2.5/3, which is somewhat better than my contribution to last year's cup triumph when I lost in the semi-final and final. That's the beauty of chess, when things go wrong, there will always be another opportunity.

I'm so proud of our team, all of whom (along with others) also contributed to the C team success in the League. They say that it is better to travel than to arrive, and that's probably true, but let's enjoy the moment. I doubt we'll ever do a quadruple again, but next season will bring with it new opportunities and new adventures. So here's to that, and a bit of a holiday first, to contemplate all that we have delivered.

Stop Press: Kenilworth win Open and U8750 Cups, to complete historic quadruple!!

 Full match reports and details of the open-top bus parade through Kenilworth to follow...

Savour the moment. 

Division 1 Champions

Division 2 Champions

Open Cup Champions

U8750 Cup Champions

Get in!!

It's Deja Vu All Over Again, Again as KCC Dominate at the LDCL Blitz

Two years ago KCC managed a clean sweep of the podium at the annual LDCL Blitz Championship, as Javier led home myself and Bruce while posting a perfect 9/9 score. Last year our domination was slightly more muted, but Javier and Bruce still tied for the title, so it could hardly be called a failure. Jump forward to this year's event, held last night at Solihull, and it was almost as though we were back in 2023. Javier once again reeled off 9 successive wins to obliterate the field and I again followed at a respectable distance (7 pts), while this time round it was Keatan (6.5 pts) who completed the clean sweep. And Bruce (6 pts) then followed in 4th= place to make it an even more impressive night than 2 years ago. If Ben had won his last round he would also have finished 4th=, but as it was he had to settle for 9th= with 5 pts.

There were, unavoidably, plenty of intra-KCC encounters. Javier beat myself, Keatan and Bruce; I beat Bruce and Ben while losing to Keatan and Javier; Keatan beat me and Bruce but lost to Javi; Bruce beat Ben but lost to Javi, me and Keatan; and Ben did the decent thing and lost to me and Bruce!

32 players, but you'll have to make do with the top 23. 

As well as finishing third, Keatan also won the U-1800 prize (I know - what a bandit!) even though he should probably have been the number two seed. (This also kept this cup in KCC keeping, as Bernard won it last year!) Which meant that he got a cup to display and so, of course, did Javi, which left me looking like a bit left out in the post-event photo of the podium finishers!

They say blitz is a young person's game - so spot the outlier in this photo! Interestingly we finished in height order, but not in age order, which would have been my preferred sequence. As long as it was top down!

I wouldn't normally contemplate even for a moment repeating a musical selection here, but as its so apt I don't think I have much alternative. Indeed, this could well become an annual tradition the way things are going! So many congratulations to Javi on his third consecutive LDCL Blitz title. He was indeed just perfect.

Champions! We are going up!!!

 Last night saw our Division 2 showdown against Shirley B. We started the evening two points clear of Shirley, with a better (but not decisive) game point difference. Our task was clear. Win, draw or lose 1.5 - 2.5 and we would be champions. If Shirley won 3-1 or better, they would pip us to the post.

I had flown back from  the Menorca Open earlier in the day, somehow managing to miss all the power cut chaos in Spain. I did feel hopeful, as on paper I knew we had a great team. The thing with chess though is that you never know. We resolved to just play our games, but to keep a collective eye as to how the match was progressing. There is always a danger in overthinking these things.

The early play suggested that the night might not be entirely plain sailing. Dave seemed to be a fraction worse on Board 1 against Darren Whitmore, while Paul was really struggling against Owen Adams' Morra Gambit on Board 3. Yet Andy had a clear edge on Board 2 against Keith Ingram and my battle with Dave Thomas did not look like a game I was going to lose. So while not disastrous, the margins felt a little tight.

Time ticked on.

Andy led the way, picking up material and marching a pawn resolutely down the board. Meanwhile, I was a pawn up against Dave and with the better structure, but with opposite coloured bishops. Dave had turned down an early draw, yet when he offered me one now I hesitated. In normal circumstances I would have played it out, as it felt risk free (post-game analysis showed it was all a touch more complicated) but instead I waited and watched Andy's game while my clock ran down. 

Andy had crystalised his position and was a pawn up in a king and pawn endgame. It was impossible for Keith to defend on both sides of the board. I did not have enough time left on my clock for Andy to actually complete the win, but I was very confident that he would, so I took the draw.

A few minutes later Andy had won and we had the one and a half points that we needed to win the title! The evening got even better when Dave, who has done a fantastic job for us, exploited an error from Darren to give us victory in the match itself with a fine win.

Sadly Paul could not hold off Owen but it did not matter - Paul has won us plenty of other matches this season - and we had got the job done!

We had a drink with the Shirley players (including Gordon and Arnold who had been very welcome spectators) in the bar afterwards to collectively reflect on a season now done. Ultimately we had won the title by four points, having beaten Shirley in both our individual matches, and also held off the season long challenge from Coventry.

Next year will bring us an opportunity in Division 1 - we have earnt the chance to show what we can do. These are such exciting times for Kenilworth and truly a golden age for our teams.

A huge thank you to all who have played for the team this season. We've used 12 players and everyone has made a contribution at crucial moments. Our final stats for the year are...

Paul 6/11

Andy 5/11

Ben 7.5/10

Harry 5/8

Dave 3.5/ 5

Rhys 2.5/5

Bernard 2/3

Michal 2/3

Dhairya 2/2

Mike 1.5/2

Dan 1/1

Dylan 1/1

Here's to next season - albeit some of us will be trying to add cup glory to our League success before May is out!

Stop Press: Kenilworth C Division 2 Champions and Promoted to Division 1!

Our 2.5 - 1.5 victory against Shirley tonight means that we've done it!!! Full report to follow in due course...

Game of the Month - April 2025 (#2!)

Well, this is a first. Two Games of the Month in the same month, when we're typically lucky to get two in a year. But what can you do when one's inbox over-floweth with splendid offerings?

One of the big plusses for the club this season, when people were dropping like flies or heading for the hills, was the return to regular action of Andy Ward. While this further complicates matters by having 3 Andrews/Andys to differentiate, its a small price to play for the return of a strong player who has played a massive part in the C team's promotion challenge. Our game, though, somes from a recent Division 1 match against Olton A, when a somewhat under-strength Kenilworth B managed to win despite only turning up with 3 players! This was one of the decisive games that saw us overcome our numerical deficiency and secure a third place league position. Not quite matching last season's 2nd place finish for the B team, but probably an even better effort in view of our loss of players for much of the season. I don't suppose those of us in the A team will ever be allowed to forget that we managed to score just a single match point against the B team this season, and suffered our biggest drubbing (0.5-3.5) for many a year in the first encounter.

But back to the Game of the Month, and here - with Andy's own comments - is Andy's excellent victory over Richard Liszewski, who must be sick of the sight of Kenilworth players, having also lost to Bruce and myself earlier in the season. Here Black gets slowly strangled as Andy takes full advantage of some rather passive play by Richard, which ends up with Black having the worst pair of rooks you could ever see, and his light squared bishop is not much better. At the end, Andy is only a pawn up, but the Black rooks and king are so badly placed that it is impossible to avoid massive material loss. This was a very smooth and well controlled game by Andy. Black never seemed to have a chance!